


they stay down deep

by cravingformore



Category: Duskwood (Everbyte Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, False Identity, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Requited Love, creative liberties for physical appearances
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:21:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28596144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cravingformore/pseuds/cravingformore
Summary: Dave has plenty of things he enjoys. Computers, hacking, spending time with his sisters, figuring out who the killer is in murder mysteries.He also has plenty of things he wants to hide. His real name (Jake), for one. The real reason he's in college as another.
Relationships: Jake (Duskwood)/Female Main Character (Duskwood)
Kudos: 7





	they stay down deep

**Author's Note:**

> hi im trash for yet another fandom again.

“And David will be partnered with Liv."

This had him lifting his hood-covered head, first to look at the professor, then to Liv, who was already looking at him with a smile.

Dave and Liv knew each other from this class and a groupchat that he was not an active participant of. Dave couldn't really say he knew Liv, but he enjoyed her reaction to the conversations and appreciated her quick thinking and love for mysteries. If he had to be honest with himself he had to admit, out of all his sisters' friends, Liv was his favorite. They had even discussed privately before, but mostly about mundane things (except for one conversation that made him blush – before they met in real life. She had wanted to know his hair color just to know him a bit better). This didn't mean he really could deal with being her pair in this course-determining project.

"Now each pair get assigned a case file. I have acquired these from the police with permission: they have all been solved and I have changed all of the names of victims, suspects and anyone who may be recognised as a specific person," the professor explained while handing out these copies to the students. "Your task is, with your partner to go through the case file, use whatever tools you can find and see if you come up with the same conclusion as the police did. You have until the end of the term."

"Will we be getting an electronic version as well?" a fellow student inquired.

"You will."

The project itself seemed interesting enough. Dave wasn't sure he and Liv would work well as a pair, but he was willing to try. After he read the file summary, he gave Liv a tiny smile of his own. She beamed.

When they were released Dave messaged her sisters about their whereabouts. They had only recently found each other, mostly thanks to Dave not-so ethical hacking to see his own birth certificate to see who his other parent was, only to find out he was born out of wedlock. This led him to find out about his half-sisters and wanting to form a relationship with them, which lead to some family drama that only recently was resolved. Since he now had what he wanted - a family - he only wanted to study and get through life as quietly as he could.

_**Hannah:** Hey, we're waiting outside._

_Alright, I'll be right over._

"Hey Dave!"

After a beat he replied with a simple "Hello" to Liv. She apparently rather talked face to face than by texting. Honestly, he was fine with this, since he had trouble reading people only through texting. In real life he could read expressions and nervous habits well, helping him sort out the lot he didn't want anything to do with. God knew the dealings he’d had before.

"So," Liv said, clasping her hands together, "Where do you want to meet up for the project?"

She kept looking at his face. Dave was taller than her by quite a bit and had a slender form due to lack of physical activity and greasy food. Liv had always liked him. Whenever he did speak in the groupchat she appreciated his ideas or inputs, showing his true intellect and no-nonsense way of speaking. From the way he didn't include himself too often she figured he didn't find texting to be his favourite way to communicate, or that he was shy. From the way his ocean-blue eyes looked at her back, though, she knew he wasn't exactly shy - meaning he probably would rather meet face to face, hence the suggestion of meeting somewhere, despite the ease of doing the project online.

"How about the library? Does that work for you?"

Unlike Dave, Liv lived outside campus. Meeting on the college campus would be inconvenient for her.

"Yeah! How about we start today?" she had a big smile on her face, and Dave knew she wasn't smiling because she was nervous or uncomfortable, so he relaxed.

Even so, he shook his head. "I had agreed to meet with my sisters for some quality sibling time."

Her smile lessened but stayed happy. "Oh, I wouldn't dare ruin Lilly's plans."

This made Dave laugh. It was only a short "Ha!" but a laugh, nonetheless. "That's wise of you. She can be quite... formidable."

"You're telling me. Or have you forgotten how I met her?"

He had not. Lilly had been messaged by an unknown number who asked her about Hannah's whereabouts. Lilly had first demanded to know who wanted to know, how they got her number (and didn't listen to their answer), then reprimanded them for messaging her instead of calling, and didn't even give them Hannah's phone number before ending the call. This came to bite her, because only ten minutes later Hannah had asked her if someone had contacted her. Turns out, Hannah had forgotten her own number and instead gave Lilly's to a coursemate they had a project with last year, telling them to ask for Hannah.

Lucky for them all, Liv had an excellent sense of humour, and out of nowhere everyone realised she was in the friend group and didn't even feel like an outsider. Jake had always felt like she and her could get along but he hadn't had the reason to contact her prior to this.

Suddenly he realised they had walked together all the way outside. Hannah waved at them. "Dave, Liv!"

He simply waved his hand, while Liv waved her entire arm.

Lilly glared at Liv. "How come you're with him?"

"Oh, we were assigned partners for this project! I wanted to meet today, but he had plans with you guys and I won't come in your way, but I would like to set a time we can meet?" The last part was directed at him.

"Yeah, um," he started while thinking through his schedule.

"Oh, we can totally reschedule!" Hannah said out of nowhere.

"Huh?" Lilly and Dave both said.

"You've got a deadline for that project while we'll be family forever. Yeah, go on ahead, we'll set another time for our bonding time!" Hannah beamed, her arm disappearing behind Lilly, who made a face but didn't argue.

"Alright, if you're sure," Dave said, turning to look at Liv who was looking at Hannah's hidden hand and thinking.

She turned to him. "Yeah, if you're sure? We do still have plenty of time on that deadline."

Dave looked at his sisters, who were suspiciously far away. "I mean..." he waved a hand at them, who were already out of earshot.

Liv laughed. "They really can't let it go, can they?"

"Let what go?"

"Oh, nothing."

Liv had once made the mistake if admitting to Hannah that she quite enjoyed Dave's way of texting. Hannah heard this as: "I have a crush on your brother."

Well, all's fine. It was sort of true. More of an infatuation, to be honest. She enjoyed making him flustered. And every time he was even slightly flirty with her via text, she got strange butterflies in her stomach.

"So, shall we?" Dave said, pointing to the direction of the town.

"But you live on campus, shouldn't we go to the campus library?" Liv looked honestly confused.

Now Dave was confused. "But you live in town, shouldn't we meet there?"

"That would be inconvenient you?"

Then Dave laughed again. He's really on a roll today. "We could stand here all day and argue who gets a longer way home, or we could go for coffee. Rogers' is about halfway for both of us."

Liv's smile broke out again. "Good idea." Then they started walking in comfortable silence, until she spoke again. "So, what's the case?"

"I only read the summary of it. Woman is missing, main suspect is the boyfriend. Police took action 48 hours after she was found missing."

"I'm glad we have an actually interesting case instead of a robbery." Her steps fell with his, in sync. "Robberies are so obvious - motive is almost always greed, means is easily figured out, culprit is just the last one to find."

"Were you planning on joining the police?" Dave wondered.

"Nah. Dad's a detective and he needs a successor. The family business has been going on for several generations now" she explained. "I'll be the first female detective in our business!"

Impressed, Dave congratulated her. "How's the pay?"

She gave a small smile. "You know Poirot?"

"Obviously," he answered.

"Dad's pretty well known. He's just the very opposite Poirot in almost every other way except their brains," she smiled mischievously. At Dave's confused face she continued, "If someone tries to offer less than what dad deems is what he deserves he'll easily... convince them otherwise.”

"Ah." Meaning her father was scary. Noted.

Soon they arrived at Rogers'. When they sat down at a table, Dave took out the case files and together they read through it. They told their ideas back and forth, taking turns in saying clues they already know. Liv was looking through the file and Dave wrote everything down. Whenever something interesting turned up, Liv would turn to him and show it, and together they'd figure out how it fits.

It wasn't long before they realized they were sitting closer together than what they had started with - their shoulders were even touching. In a natural move Liv leaned back, effectively moving away without actually moving. That being said, their legs were still touching. "So as we've seen the case so far, do you think it to be a kidnapping?" She said.

"Based on what evidence we have, I'd say it's likely," he replied.

"But then who did it?"

"I think it's safe to say someone she knew, based on the fact that this takes place in a small town where everyone knows everyone, and no one mentions anyone new."

"Hmm." She leaned back forward and rested her head in her hands. Dave could see her profile deep in thought. "I have my suspicions based on the witness accounts, but how about we meet up later to talk more? Then we can see if our suspicions were the same."

“Sounds good to me.” For a moment they tried to figure out a date and time to meet up, and when they did, he commented on how well they work together. “I’ve never had a partner who can keep up with me – uh, no pun intended,” making her laugh. It was a glorious sound. Dave moved to leave and said, “Right, I guess that’s all we can do today. I’ll see you later - unless there's something else you'd like to talk about?"

"Tell me your name."

Dave froze. She couldn’t possibly know… "My name? But you already know my name?"

"Please." She scoffed. "I'm not like everyone else to be so easily fooled. You don't react very fast to David, but when I talk to you your responses are always fast. You're used to David, but it's not your preferred name."

He was stunned. "How can you notice such an insignificant tell?"

"Because I notice a lot about you. I'd like to know you even better."

He didn't react for a while.

"Please?" Her voice was soft and reassuring. He was reminded of how much he trusts her already and opens his mouth.

With more eagerness than caution, he introduces himself. "My name is Jake."

Her smile was blinding. "Hello, Jake," she said with a gentle touch on his hand with hers. He turned his hand, so they were sort of shaking them, but sitting next to each other it was more like holding hands. It was the very opposite of unpleasant for Jake, however.

"Hello, Liv."

"How do you feel sharing this with me?" she inquired removing her hand from his slowly.

"Relieving. But you know, telling this to you can be dangerous. There's so much at stake here."

"You can trust me," she said almost inaudibly.

"I want to trust you," Jake replied as quietly. With a louder but still soft voice he changed the subject. "So now I'd like to know something about you."

"Okay, like what?" Liv leaned back onto her chair.

"Are you dating someone?" He regretted it immediately after he asked. She knew she was going to say yes -

"No, I am not."

He turned to look at her, a bit confused. He was sure she was either dating Dan or Richy or, most likely, Phil. She's not?

Then she smiled brighter than he had ever seen her do before. "Why?"

"I don't know. I..."

She urged him on. "Yes?"

He decided to go with a half-truth. "I find you fascinating."

"I find you fascinating as well."

His cheeks reddened at that. He really had to leave. "Well, um, we've made quite a bit of progress here, and I'm glad we've had this chance to... talk, and, um, I'll see you later. Goodbye," he said in a rush and was gone.

Liv smiled. Her plan was afoot.


End file.
